Tough Mudder finally came! I’ve been dreading it/looking forward to it for six months now. Right after I signed up for Krav Maga in December 2010, Hatchet turned me on Tough Mudder a hard core endurance challenge that takes place all over the country and next year all over the world. I used my training at Krav to cross-train for Tough Mudder. The upper body workouts we do really came in handy during the race. I joined the RMRG team that entered and ran with about 10 other people. If I ever do this challenge again I would like to run with a tighter knit group (maybe 3-4 people) and do more running training.
Here are some statistics of the challenge; 10 mile course, base elevation of 8,100 feet, summit elevation of 11,440 feet, with a course elevation change of 4,250 feet, 25 obstacles. The most difficult one for me caught me by surprise. I thought I would have the hardest time getting myself to run through the electrical wires, but I could only make it under one of the barrels on the Underwater Tunnels. The water in the small lake was close to freezing, our muscles froze up and I couldn’t catch my breath enough to dive under the barrels. I started to panic and pulled myself through the other two sets of barrels onto dry land. Tough Mudder staff had space-age aluminum blankets to help us get our core temp back to normal. After a few minutes, I was back on the trail ready for the next challenge. My four favorite obstacles were the Kiss of Mud (#6), Mudslide (#21), Greased Lightning (#22) and the FunkyMonkey (#23). Hover over the numbers on the map to see some images of previous challenges.
After I crossed the finish line, Chris asked me if I was going to do another Tough Mudder. At the time I said, “@#$% NO! Once was enough!” But now I’m not sure. There were a few things that I would have done differently. The main being to train more for the challenge. I would have liked to see if I could have run through the entire course and improve my time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.